Open-Source Marketing Automation? Yes! Let’s save budget!

Years ago, when I worked at a cybersecurity startup, I pitched an alternative to paying over $20,000.00 per year for a Marketing Automation Solution that had no guarantee of enhancing their sales and marketing programs.

What was the alternative you ask??

It was an open-source platform which, while encompassing some steep learning curves, would give the startup the capabilities it needed for the low cost of hosting or staging a virtual server. It was a huge risk, but a risk I felt confident about delivering on, and at the end, despite some reluctance from the startup’s leadership, my proposal got the green light.

Can this really work?

A few months later, with the help of the in-house technologists at the startup, I successfully installed Mautic and was using it to send marketing messages. This included highly personalized sales messages on behalf of the sales team, which quickly became a go-to tactic for qualifying and nurturing cold leads to an opportunity status.

This, along with the other integrations the platform sported all resulted in increased lead generation, webinar signups, and directly attributable revenue. In addition, the $20,000.00 earmarked for a marketing automation subscription was now able to be spent on other sales and marketing activities, including event marketing, which contributed to incremental growth.

What I learned and what are the options?

Based on this, my conclusion was that going with an open source or free marketing automation solution had various advantages for small and mid-sized businesses over the larger costly automation platforms including:

• Being budget friendly: With open-source Marketing Automation, you can install the platform on most shared hosting accounts if the minimum requirements are met. Additionally, if you have a decent internet connection or cloud servers, you can quickly stage a server to install and operate the platform in-house.
• Being Flexible: As most open-source platforms have open API’s, a community of plugins, and an active community for answering questions, your Marketing Automation solution can connect with most of your sales and marketing technology stack. You can also get answers extremely fast from a community of experts on how to further customize your solution to fit your needs.
• Fostering control over data: As your data remains in-house, on your cloud or in-house servers, the data remains in your sphere of control and protection, which can make staying in compliance with the litany of rules and regulations across the world much easier, as well as reduces your risk by eliminating additional third parties.?

Thus, if you are a startup, small business, or just want to save some money, you should explore open-source email marketing automation. Here are three solutions to consider:

• Mautic (https://www.mautic.org/): Mautic is among the most well-known open-source Marketing Automation platforms and has a diverse base of installed users. Plugins also exist for seamless integration with other established platforms such as Salesforce and Zoho CRM. Docker images and other cloud deployments also exist which allows for seamless installation on an array of different server deployments. ?
• DittoFeed (https://www.dittofeed.com/): Released under an open source, MIT license, DittoFeed is another open-source platform that is quickly becoming an alternative to other paid platforms such as Customer.io, Braze and Kalviyo, as per their website and reddit posts outline.? This feature rich solution promises “low-code drag and drop” editing for campaign journeys and developing templates, as well as omni-channel integration for unifying campaigns across email and mobile messaging platforms.
• SendPortal (https://www.sendportal.io): While SendPortal is not a complete marketing automation solution, the platform does allow for some campaign automation and workspace configuration.? The platform also integrates with Amazon SES, Postmark, Sendgrid, Mailgun and Mailjet and can also be installed around other existing applications, making the platform diverse and expandable to meet the needs of most small businesses and startups.

Additional things to consider

Of course, before you implement any of these platforms, make sure your data is in compliance with local rules and regulations, and that your hosting and servers all have secure certificates and updated security protocols. Always consult your IT department or someone knowledgeable to be sure.

Are you using an open-source marketing automation platform? Let me know in the comments and as always, send me a message if you are interested in getting some coffee and learning more about how I can help you explore the options.